Ok, it can’t beat the Hilton billboard in Vienna, but it is impressive, too: The XING blow-up we designed for our office façade in Hamburg spans no less than three whole floors. It’s our way of celebrating having reached the important 5 million member mark (and gives part of the team a convenient sun shield at the same time ;).

This goes out to you – our members - and again thank you for creating such a fantastic and active community.

This week it's Andreas from the finance department:

Andreas (Finance): After just two days at XING I was given the chance to take part in a training seminar on “Advances in Tax Accounts and Auditing”, so my newcomer status meant that I gained new knowledge at the same time. I have now been at XING for three weeks and would describe the atmosphere as being both lively and face-paced. Work processes are characterized by one thing above all else: speed. The lack of hierarchies means that time-consuming feedback loops are avoided. I have really noticed this, as the companies I previously worked in were much more hierarchically structured and colleagues generally addressed each other more formally. This is not the case at XING. The entire team is very open and friendly, and there’s always someone you can talk to as a newcomer. In the Finance department, I particularly like the fact that each person has different areas of expertise and skills, and that everyone complements one another. I’m taking care of the basics of daily business at the moment, before starting on the end-of-quarter accounts at a later stage. I’m interested to find out what future responsibilities lie ahead for me!

XING is currently looking for committed employees for most departments, from Engineering to Marketing. Click here for the current job listings.

Hooray! Today we started our outdoor campaign in Vienna with a huge 640 sq. meter billboard in the Vienna Hilton Complex. The billboard was actually due to be mounted on Tuesday but a sudden snowstorm meant that we had to postpone the attempt by a day. Yesterday, however the weather was on our side and we managed to mount the billboard in just under 4 hours!

We were sitting on hot coals waiting for the first reactions to come in – and we’ve had a great response so far. The first blog response came from mobile2null who saw the billboard on his way home. If you don’t have the chance to stop-over in Vienna (fantastic city – and I’m not just saying that coz my boss is Austrian) – have a look at the pics and check out the following online responses:
horizont.net: Xing will Österreicher überzeugen
wuv.de: Xing macht sich in Österreich breit
bessergehtsimmer.at: Xing umgarnt Wien mit Riesenplakat

You can find more information on our marketing campaign in Austria in our German press release.

As you can see, one of our members played Easter bunny yesterday and sent us loads of chocolate bunnies. They were much appreciated by the XING team members: we could only keep them alive just long enough to take this picture.

We'd like to use this opportunity to send our thanks out to our members who are always thinking of us on special occasions like this! Thank you very much for all the good wishes and sweets we receive for Christmas, Easter and other occasions! We wish all of our members a wonderful Easter weekend. Hope you enjoy your days off and can spend some quality time with friends and family searching for Easter eggs!

As a XING member I like to know as much as possible about my network and my contacts. I’m always interested to find out where they are, what they’re up to and what business they’re involved in at the moment. And it seems many fellow networkers feel the same way: Large numbers of our members have asked for the new status feature that goes live on the platform today. From now on, Premium Members will be able to enter their current status in a brand new field at the top right-hand corner of their profile. You can use this space for example to let people know that you’re at a conference in city XY, that you’re available for work or busy if you’re a freelancer, or that you’re in the office, working from home, or on a business trip. Individual members decide for themselves who they want to share this information with – your settings let you choose whether you want to display your status to all members or just your personal contacts. You can also decide whether you want your status displayed in the “What’s new in my network” ticker as well. At the same time you have the choice of whether you want to see your contact’s status messages in your infobox. The big plus is: You’re kept in the know without having to actively search for information, so you always aware of exactly what’s happening in your network at any one time.

I’m really intrigued to see what members’ reactions will be to the new status feature. Lots of insightful status messages appeared on my start page ticker when the XING team was testing it. Your network suddenly becomes even more closely knit, and there’s a constant stream of information that often proves really useful in your daily work.

And today Dagmar shares her "Piece of cake XING" with us. (click on the image to enlarge)

Yesterday the World Economic Forum announced Lars as a Young Global Leader.

Well done boss, we´re very proud of what you´ve achieved!!!

Your XING-Team

Ever since so many of my Hamburg colleagues have discovered the "office toys” that make work that little bit easier and enjoyable, I  haven’t been able to keep catchy tunes out of my head.

Just recently our new “colleague in the box” caught my I eye for the first time and I couldn’t help thinking of that 80s classic hit:

… Am I living in a box am I living in a cardboard box
am I living in a box am I living in a cardboard box
am I living in a box …

And once I’d seen another colleague’s new “office pet” I couldn’t get “round, round baby round, round” out of my head for the rest of the day.

It’s amazing how many musical hits brighten up  an average day at the office.

On that note – XING it … ;-)

P.S. “The rocket man” is the perfect anthem for December’s shop favorite. The “desk accessory” was completely sold out, but is now back in stock … ;-)

Introducing yet another new addition to the XING family. This time round, Christopher looks back on his XING story so far:   

Christopher (Engineering): I started at XING as Junior Manager Engineering two months ago and when I look back on my first week in the job it feels as though it was the steepest learning curve I’ve ever experienced! I have never been confronted with so many new terms in such a short time, had to take in so much new information and meet so many new faces. I was really impressed by just how qualified and skilled my colleagues are. It’s amazing just how good my team is. And I don’t get treated like the baby although I’m the youngest by far – they always take my suggestions and ideas as seriously as anyone else. We all work together: My superior sits two desks away from me and their superior sits another four desks along – which makes for a pleasant and communicative atmosphere within the team. We’re all friends with each other too and often stay a little longer in the evenings to play a round of table football together. XING is a diverse and cool place to work, and I think its really fitting that the office is located in a city like Hamburg. There are so many different characters working here under the same roof who all get on with one another despite these differences. I couldn’t imagine XING being based in Munich...

Are you looking for a job and think you might make a valuable addition to the XING team? If so, be sure to check out our current job vacancies here.